


Spiraling Stairs

by Glassworkclock



Category: Sky High (2005)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Multi, Science Fiction, Unconventional Families
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-09
Updated: 2014-02-09
Packaged: 2018-01-11 18:49:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1176615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glassworkclock/pseuds/Glassworkclock
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been hard for as long as Warren can remember. Thing is, he doesn't remember that far back, and his life is  certainly about to get a lot more complicated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spiraling Stairs

 

“Your dad acts funny around me, let he expects me to pull a knife and shank the nearest kindergartner.” Warren leaned back in the library seat; closing the mammoth book he’d been taking notes for class out of.

Will shrugged, looking to the others for help.

“You do look almost exactly like your dad, at lest the high school photos of him. It was a big fight, give him time.” Layla offered softly. It was almost summer, and Warren didn’t light up at the mention of his father anymore, but it still wasn’t to the point that he was joking about it.

Magenta snorted, “My parents didn’t believe you were alive.” She shut her book as the bell rang.

The whole group paused in various staged of getting up and pushing in chairs, and turned.

Magenta blinked, “One of the crimes Barron Battle was charged with was the murder of his family, wife and son, didn’t you know?”

Warren blinked, “But…I’m not dead?”

“Way to go Sherlock, when’d you figure that out?” Magenta rolled her eyes. “For the record your body was never found.” She lead the way out the door to the buses. “Ask who ever you live with.”

Warren paused, rubbing the back of his neck, “I don’t live with anyone…I’ve lived alone for as long as I can remember.”

“Remember?” Ethan frowned, “What do you mean?”

Warren opened his mouth and closed it, pushing past them. “It’s nothing.”

The freshmen exchanged glances and fallowed. A year of having friends had brought Warren out of his anti social shell, it had made him slower to jump instantly to launching a flaming ball of hatred at whatever poor sap mentioned his past, it had yet to get him to tell them anything about it.

They had discussed it among them selves, speculating. They’d settled on he was living with a relative in the area, or had been adopted. He drove him self to school, so they had no idea where he lived. They knew he worked, and assumed it was for personal spending…unless he’d been adopted or taken in by a low-income family.

Warren was gone from the parking lot before they could catch him. “He works tonight we can ask again at the Paper Lantern.” Layla suggested on the bus.

“Yeah at least then he won’t burn us there.”  Zach mumbled, earning a light smack from Magenta. “What?”

“Warren’s not going to burn us.” Will shook his head leaning back into the seat. “He’s cooled down a lot.”

Zach snorted, “So he’ll just lightly toast us then. Wonderful.”

“He won’t,” Ethan looked up from his book, “Like Will said, Warren’s cooled down. So he’s not adopted, he’s not living with anyone, he didn’t tell us. There is a resin.”

“He can’t be of age…to live on his own…maybe he didn’t want to get caught. Warren liked being alone, he might like living alone too.” Will offered. They used to feel bad about talking about Warren behind his back. Not that they were spreading lies or saying anything spiteful, it was just that they were talking. About him. Behind his back. Now it was different, it had become a normal bus conversation as they had to, in order to even try and understand the secretive pyro.

Magenta shook her head, “My parents work in the SPB Justice department. By law any place that house’s an ‘of-age’ super has to have a lair, a kind of bat cave, or be registered as temporary, till one with such accommodations are found.” She leaned back in her seat, “If Warren was living alone, and had no liar, him hiding it may not be anything about wanting to become a lonely old man with to many cats. It could have something to do about not wanting to be arrested.”

“You said your parents didn't even believe you when you said he was alive.” Layla tilted her head. “So Warren’s not in the system?”

“He’s enrolled at Sky High,” Ethan protested, “He has to be in the system, unless all the teachers think he’s a ghost.”

Magenta paused, “That would make since…”

“What?” Will frowned.

“Warren is the son of a high class super villain. For his own protection he might have been listed as dead, so he wouldn’t be able to be found and attacked. It’s a method called Ghosting.” Magenta explained. “Only the top need to know people would even be remotely aware of where he was and what he was doing till gradation or him earning his hero license, which ever came first.”

Will sighed, “That would explain why my parents were so surprised to hear that it was Warren I’d gotten in a fight with before…and after we saved the school and Dad, he was staring at Warren like he _was_ a ghost.”

They sat in silence for awhile, till Magenta whispered, “But Warren should have known he was being Ghosted, he should have known that he was ‘dead’…he shouldn’t have been surprised at all. Why was he surprised? He shouldn’t have been surprised.”

“He said it him self,” Ethan mumbled, “He didn’t remember.”

O.o.O.o.O

Warren ran a hand through his hair for the umpteenth time. It was different, seeing him unsettled, nervous, as apposed to the rock they were used to, if he was unsettled by anything he usually set it on fire and kicked it down a hill. This wasn’t something that could be set on fire and kicked down a hill. They sat in the booth waiting for him to be done clearing tables. He knew what they were going to ask him about, and they could all see the effect it had. Confirming their suspicions.

Warren Peace, the most intimidating person in the school counting the teachers, had amnesia.

They didn’t talk to each other, just waited and watched. How much of his past had he lost? How’d it happen? Where did he wake up after he lost it? The lights were turning off and the managers yelling from the kitchens when Warren finally walked over, head down, stained with the smell of Chinese food. “They…we’re closing…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “You…I…fallow me…” Head back down muttering to him self, Warren lead the way out around the last row of booths, towards what everyone thought was just another entrance to the kitchens. The door had a shinny brass handle and swung noiselessly open to a small hall that ended in a spiral staircase of polished brass that shone like a new coin and mahogany that reflected the lights of the hall.

“Where are we going?” Ethan asked as his eyes scanned the hall.

Warren said nothing, locking the door behind them. Turning and leading the way up the stairs. Up at the top was a small ledge, and a door that looked like it had been stolen from a castle. A door handle in the shape of a dragon clung to the door with its claws. “This is my home…” Warren whispered unlocking the door and pushing it open.

Their eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

The apartment was elegant, calm, clean, and it just seemed to radiate safety. Warren lead the way in and flopped on a leather couch in the living room, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“This is so…zen.” Magenta looked around sitting across from him, setting her bag on the dark wood table that had a phoenix posed midflight in its face. There was a small sand and rock garden on the kitchen counter next to a bowl of meditation balls, candles were spread through out the apartment, somewhere else they could hear the sound of water running over rocks, none of the carving or statues that brought an elegance to the place looked menacing, but rather, protective.

Warren shrugged, “You were expecting over turned furniture, dirty clothes everywhere, and some savage dog?”

“Well yeah,” Zach nodded vigorously, “You never seemed like the kind of dude to mediate!”

“You should try it sometime.” Warren sighed, “Well out with it, what were you waiting my whole shift to ask?”

“…Do you have amnesia?” Layla finally ventured forth.

Warren stiffened but gave a small nod.

“How much do you remember?” Will bit his lip.

Warren shrugged. “Four years. I woke up here when I was twelve…or at lest I think that’s how old…There was a letter on the table explaining who my parents were, and what happened, apparently this place and the restaurant are left to me in their wills.”

“You own the Paper Lantern?” Layla gasped.

“Not till I’m eighteen.” Warren shook his head. “But yeah, I had two years to get a handle on my powers before Sky High. I started working down stairs maybe a week or two after waking up.” He shrugged, “It was all prearranged, Miss. Fong said that an uncle or someone dropped me off here and set up my employment. He never came back, and even she could tell I wasn’t awake.”

“What were you?” Zach tilted his head to a side.

“She said it looked like a trance or a daze of some kind. I fallowed my uncle up the stairs and didn’t come down till the next morning, apparently looking like hell. God that first day _was_ hell. I had no idea where I was, who I was…she hit me over the head with a stack of menus when I wouldn’t calm down and listen.”

They sat in silence for a moment. No one looked as each other. Warren finally stood walking into the kitchen, vanishing from sight. They could hear shuffling and clanking of ceramic dishes and a stove turning on.

“Any one else besides Hippie drink tea?” Warren came back out grinding something with a mortar and pestle.

“You drink tea?” Zach blinked, “You struck me more as a coffee guy.”

Warren shrugged, “I have coffee every now and them, but it needs like a ton of sugar and cream in it.” He disappeared back into the kitchen, after a moment they all slowly walked in. Warren was staring at a kettle on the stove as his hands mechanically filled a small tea ball with what he had been grounding up.

“You okay man?” Will laid a hand on his shoulder.

Warren blinked, “Hmm, oh, I’m fine.”

“Did you forget everything?” Ethan took a step back as Warren dropped the tea ball into the boiling water and leaned against the counter.

“Everything? Yes and no. I tested extremely high for my age in school. I could sit down at the baby grand piano in there,” He gestured down a hall way, “and play music like I’d been trained my whole life. Bring me any song from Broadway, I can sight read it almost perfictly and it all sounds and feels so familiar. I could cook, almost anything except remember how I learned it. I found my father’s blue prints for his inventions and they all make since. I was taught it all before…I just don’t know when or by who. I still to this day can’t tell you anything from before I woke up. I can’t tell you what I did the morning before waking up here. Nothing. No faces, not sounds, not even dreams…” Warren trailed off, taking the kettle off the heat and turning the stove off.  “With all the mad science there is in the world…sometimes I wonder if I even existed.” He poured him self a mug of the tea glancing up questioningly to the others. Only Layla raised her hand for a mug.

“So you’ve been living here alone for four years?” Magenta raised an eyebrow. “Isn't that illegal?”

“It was in the will. If no family stepped forward, I got the place to myself. It’s been just me and the fish.” Warren shrugged passing Layla her mug, and not waiting for the steaming tea to cool any started sipping his own. “And yes I have the required ‘super hole’.”

Magenta nodded falling quiet.

Warren sighed. “Look, it’s no big deal, I’ve been living just fine with it.” He paused, as their silence grew out longer. “And don’t you kids have a bedtime or something?”

That got them moving. Complaining that he was only a year or two older than them but it got them out the door. At least most of them.

Warren hadn’t really seen them out, but had gone back into a circle small room up at the top of a small flight of stairs. The wood was cool against his bare feet as he pulled he shirt off and the candles light them selves. True he didn't need to be shirtless but he was stresses and felt like it. The clothing was too confining. Eyes closed, finally feeling the tension of the day fall off his shoulders, breathing almost as if he was sleeping before he heard the crash.

“There’s a table there Wonder Boy.” He called with out moving.

“How’d you know it was me?”

“You are the only one I know that is clumsy enough to have a crash that loud over a low table. Most people just bang their shin.” Warren let out a breath, his hands resting on his knees. “Don’t brake my furniture, my mom made it.”

“Your mom? H-how’d you find that out?”

Warren sighed; it was a bit hard to clear his mind with Stronghold creaking on the floorboards not even a full yard behind him. “AI Mind. It’s a super computer that can be accessed from any point in the house, or down in the ‘super hole’. It was here when we lived here before we all disappeared for a few years. Dad apparently was a brilliant inventor, and made her.” He rolled his shoulders and opened his eyes, still trying to find the secret of letting go of the tension in the sounds of water flowing over rocks.

“Really?”

Warren grinned, and the candles went out. “AI, come introduce yourself.”

He turned just in time to see Will nearly jump out of his skin at the light tap on his shoulder.

AI had taken the shape of a slender Pilipino woman, the one that had been a hostess once or twice on particularly low-staffed days in the Paper Lantern. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. “Good afternoon sir. How may I be of assistance?”

“But…but I could feel that!” Will took a step back, eyeing the girl.

AI smiled, “I am a sophisticated, advanced, self thinking, intelligence source. I developed a way to physically interact with the young master long ago.”

Warren bit back laughter as Will poked AI on the forehead still not fully convinced she was standing there. AI did not appreciate being poked and batted his hand away. “Please sir, don’t tap the glass.” She smiled, “if you’ll excuse me,” with a bow she vanished.

Will stared at the spot she’d been standing in. “Th-that’s your computer?”

Warren nodded, “Don’t you have a bed time Stronghold?” he sat on the edge of the stairs, stretching.

Will scowled, “You only a year older than me.”

“And your point?” Warren raised one eyebrow.

Will sighed, “Never mind. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Warren snorted, “I’m not about to vanish.”

**Author's Note:**

> So I've had this first chapter sitting on file for a while, and never uploaded it to Fanfiction.net. Now that I'm here I figured might as well dust it off and write the story I had planed. 
> 
> Sorry but updates will probably be inconsistant. And as a heads up I am Dyslexic Disgraphic, I get it all checked but things get missed. Just please don't flame. Believe it or not flaming dose not cure learning disabilities. 
> 
> (Also is that how you make tea? I'm a coffee person but Warren struck me as a tea guy. Did I get that right?)


End file.
